The Bucket Theory

The Bucket Theory is a management or teamwork theory. A bucket can only fill with the volume of water the shortest plank allows.

In olden days, buckets are made of wooden planks tied together. Once the load of the bucket reached the shortest plank, it will flow out.

The same is like a team. No matter how good the team members are, their quality of work will be just as good as the weakest one. Therefore, the leader must quickly find out the weakest member in the team and train the person up.

This is same as in managing a company. A company needs different department to run. And its quality will be as good as the weakest department. The senior manager should find out which department is the weakest and boost its quality.

In a company, there are departments that often being overlooked and some departments being too emphasis upon. This might be the reason why a company could not expand even though a lot of effort had been put. Meanwhile, this might also be the same reason that brings the company into closing down.

挑水别忘了挖井

有两个和尚分别住在相邻的两座山上的庙里。两山之间有一条溪，两个和尚每天都会在同一时间下山去溪边挑水。久而久之，他们便成为好朋友了。

弹指一挥间，不知不觉，时间在每天挑水中，一晃就是五个春秋。

忽然有一天，左边这座山的和尚没有下山挑水，右边那座山的和尚心想：“他大概睡过头了。”便不以为意。哪知第二天，左边这座山的和尚，还是没有下山挑水，第三天也一样，过了一个星期，还是一样。直到过了一个月，右边那座山的和尚，终于按耐不住了。他心想：“我的朋友可能生病了，我要过去探望他，看看能帮上什么忙。”于是他便爬上了左边这座山去探望他的老朋友。

等他到达左边这座山的庙看到他的老友之后，大吃一惊。因为他的老友正在庙前打太极拳，一点也不像一个月没喝水的人。他好奇地问：“你已经一个月没有下山挑水了，难道你可以不用喝水吗？”左边这座山的和尚说：“来来来，我带你去看看。”于是，他带着右边那座山的和尚走到庙的后院，指着一口井说：“这五年来，我每天做完功课后，都会抽空挖这口井。虽然我们现在年轻力壮，尚能自己挑水喝，倘若有一天我们都年迈走不动时，我们还能指望别人给我们挑水喝吗？所以，即使我有时很忙，但也没有间断过我的挖井计划，能挖多少算多少。如今，终于让我挖出井，我就不必再下山挑水，我可以有更多的时间，来练习我喜欢的太极拳了。”

我们在工作领域上，工作挣薪水就像是挑水；而我们常常会忘记把握下班后的时间，挖一口属于自己的井，培养自己另一方面的实力，给自己多铺一条路。这样在未来当我们年纪大了，即使体力拼不过年轻人时，我们依然还会有水喝，而且还能喝得很悠闲，且源源不断。

企业在经营时，是否也要为自己“挖一口井”呢？培养新人，给未来投资，这何尝不是企业的长远之“井”呀！

多种一块田，就是为自己多留一条路。

Learn

Why do we fall? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.

Why do we have limited lifetime? So that we can learn to appreciate life.

Why do our love ones always break our hearts? So that we can know how important they are to us, compare to how little the expectation from them that break our heart.

Why do we have to give since we earn all our belongings by working very hard? So that we can learn to appreciate what we already have.

Why do people take advantage from us? So that we can learn how to protect ourselves from being cheated.

Why does our life get in danger? So that we can learn how to control a situation we once cannot.

Why people who change the world always being killed? So that we can learn how important these people are to us.

Why do people give up? They do not appreciate the thing they once love anymore.

Why do we lose all our most precious belongings? So that we can learn how to earn them back as we once did.

What if the life we know just vanished over night?

鸟、猫、牛粪

　一隻小鳥正在飛往南方過冬的途中。天氣太冷了，小鳥凍僵了，從天上掉下來，跌在一大片農田裡。它躺在田裡的時候，一隻母牛走了過來，而且拉了一泡屎在它身上。凍僵的小鳥躺在牛屎堆裡，發掘牛糞真是太溫暖了。牛糞讓它慢慢緩過勁兒來了！它躺在那兒，又暖和又開心，不久就開始高興地唱起歌來了。一隻路過的貓聽到了小鳥的歌聲，走過來查個究竟。順著聲音，貓發現了躲在牛糞中的小鳥，非常敏捷地將它刨了出來，並將它給吃了！ 　　

這個故事的寓意是…… 　　

1)不是每個在你身上拉屎的都是你的敵人。 　　

2)不是每個把你從屎堆中拉出來的都是你的朋友。 　　

3)而且，當你陷入深深的屎堆當中(身陷困境)的時候，閉上你的鳥嘴！